"Our mission is to increase public awareness about domestic violence and emotional child abuse; serve as an outlet for emotionally traumatized children.
The organization will pursue these goals through innovative outreach techniques
and education designed specifically to strengthen families and create
opportunities for children to live free from emotional abuse."

The question is raised, “How would a parent, guardian,
or any other adult know if what they say to their child could constitute emotional
child abuse? If you find yourself perplexed you should be. Read your
state child abuse law, in many states there is no attention given to nor is there
a clear definition of what constitutes emotional child abuse.

CHILDS
CRY FOR HELP INC......... Introduces ‘CITE
RED’

‘CITE
RED’ is our acronym which represents seven common words identified
with emotional abuse. They are emotional abuse indicators. Each
of the letters in ‘CITE RED’ stands
for one of these seven words:

C CORRUPTION
R REJECTION

I ISOLATION
E EMOTIONALLY UNRESPONSIVE

T TERROR

E EXPLOITATION
D DEGRADATION

CORRUPTION:

Training a child to get ideas
or behavior that is illegal

ISOLATION:

No freedom to engage in normal
associations with others

TERROR:

Causing extreme fear, coercion
through intimidation of a child (I.e. threats to abandon or kill or destroy possessions)

EXPLOITATION:

Using a child for advantage or profit ....grooming a child's interests of the
abuser (child sexual abuse)

REJECTION:

Refusal to acknowledge a child’s
value or self-worth

EMOTIONALLY UNRESPONSIVE:

Failure to provide care in a
sensitive, responsive manner manifested by detachment to a child

DEGRADATION:

Insulting behavior, name calling, or ridiculing a child

Verbal
Assault: The Destructive Power of Emotional Abuse Defined

When people think of child abuse they picture the physical trauma
a child endures at the hands of a parent, guardian, or other adult. What
they do not realize is that children suffer from emotional abuse in
the form of verbal assault and mental cruelty which does not even involve lifting
a hand! Parents often state “I never hit my child”, yet
they fail to realize that their demeaning crude language directed toward an impressionable
child has a far greater impact.

Each year in the United States alone there over 100,000 severe cases of emotional
child abuse are reported to authorities. In addition, there are several
hundreds of thousands of cases that go unreported. Furthermore more than three
million cases of reported physical and sexual abuse cases do involve emotional
maltreatment. Emotional abuse is a crime; however, cases that involve emotional
abuse are rarely successfully prosecuted since it is very difficult and often
impossible to prove that the emotional abuse indeed occurred.

Each state has child abuse laws designed to protect the children in question,
but in many states (ex. Florida) the child abuse laws do not define
emotional abuse and therefore both the crime and the guilty party go unrecognized.
Since emotional abuse does not adhere to the same defining textbook characteristics
that often accompany physical abuse ( bruises, cuts, or any other visible markings)
victims of emotional abuse are not likely to receive compensation since no “tell
tale” signs of abuse are present. Case workers are generally trained
to look for physical injuries, so if a child shows no bruises they are quick to
report that no abuse has occurred and move on to the next case. Proving
that psychological trauma has occurred or a child is suffering from injuries related
to emotional/mental abuse requires more than a mere physical screening. The emotional
scars are often hidden deeper within a child, and at times may even be repressed
leading them to experience not only emotional difficulties but health issues as
well.

The
long term affects of emotional abuse is more harmful than the scars caused from
physical abuse. However, both physical and sexual abused children suffer from
emotional abuse due to their trauma. Often times the negative trauma that
accompanies emotional abuse does not manifest itself right away. It may
be days, weeks, months, or even years before a child is capable of telling someone
what occurred, and some of the behavior that the child may exhibit is either misinterpreted
as poor conduct, defiant behavior or simply written off altogether and ignored.
Without a proper diagnosis and follow-up treatment, the child stands little chance
of successfully processing the emotional trauma on his own. It should
also be noted that, if left untreated, children who are victims of emotional abuse
often grow up to be abusers themselves.

In
many cases, emotional abuse is characterized by pervasive patterns of negative
parental behavior and not simply from an isolated incident. Children
are impressionable and subject to the negative effect of comments, insulting statements,
and other forms of egregious conduct resulting in the emotional destruction of
a young life. To a child, emotional abuse is like a brain cancer; it attacks a
child internally, on a mental level, and thus destroys the child’s emotional
stability and sense of well-being.

Most people are unaware that verbal assault and other forms of mental manipulation
constitute emotional abuse. However, this, in and of itself, does not render
the abuser guiltless.

Only
through education can we hope to break this vicious cycle. If children are
indeed our future, then parents, state agencies, and law makers must first be
willing to see life through the eyes of an emotionally abused child.

Childs Cry For Help(772) 985-1700

Disclaimer:
Material on this site is for informational purposes only and does not imply a
recommendation or endorsement. The views and opinions expressed are
solely those of the authors and/or publications and do not necessarily represent
or reflect the official opinions or positions ofCHILDS
CRY FOR HELP INC.